June 2012

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Why Aren't Americans Listening to Disaster Preparedness Messages?

Given the recent spate of highly publicized disasters, why don't more Americans pay attention to the advice of public health officials? The messages they are getting are largely based on unverified assumptions, not hard evidence. Equally concerning, these assumptions may inadvertently hinder preparedness.

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RAND Research Contributes to the 11th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation

Adequate compensation is critical to recruiting and retaining an all-volunteer force—in peacetime and wartime alike. To assess the effectiveness of U.S. military pay and benefits, the president directs a review of military compensation every four years. Four RAND studies contributed to this review.

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Time to Shift Talk to Health Care Costs

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act is unquestionably historic, but there is a critical aspect of health care reform that still needs to be fixed. The nation needs to take decisive action to address the rising costs of health care, writes Arthur Kellermann.

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Violence in Syria Intensifies as UN Plans Action Group Meeting in Geneva

Violence in Syria has only intensified since the failed ceasefire, leading the UN to suspend its observer mission and prompting comparisons to the war in Bosnia in the 1990s.

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Pro-Growth Austerity

Government austerity and economic growth are not antonyms: Austerity in debt-financed government spending complements economic growth, rather than conflicting with it, writes Charles Wolf.

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Gulf States Among Top in New HIV, AIDS Cases

Improving HIV prevention and medical care delivery to persons living with HIV/AIDS should be a collaborative effort, particularly in the Gulf States region, where resources are limited but the epidemic is expanding, writes Vivian Towe.

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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Vulnerable Populations

June is National PTSD Awareness Month and June 27th is PTSD Awareness Day, providing an opportunity to recognize the challenges faced by survivors of trauma who live with PTSD symptoms. RAND research is helping increase awareness about the disorder and inform policy about how to prevent and address it.

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Egypt's New President Has the Mandate—What about the Power?

Mohamed Morsi's victory is a huge step in Egypt's political development, but his authorities were recently curtailed by the military and it is unclear how much power he will actually wield, writes Jeffrey Martini.

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Former RAND Researcher Elizabeth McGlynn Receives AcademyHealth's Distinguished Investigator Award

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James Drake, 'Father of Windsurfing' and RAND Engineer, Dies at 83

James Drake, a former RAND aeronautical engineer who is also considered the father of windsurfing died on June 19 in his hometown of Pfafftown, North Carolina. He was 83.

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Resources for Servicemembers and Veterans with PTSD

As Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Day approaches on June 27th, policymakers continue to look for ways to best help our nation's servicemembers and veterans with PTSD and other combat related mental health problems.

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Debating Hillary

Absent further developments or revelations, history will judge Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state as solid if unspectacular, writes James Dobbins.

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Can Summer Learning Programs Prevent Skill and Knowledge Loss?

Today is National Summer Learning Day, a day established to raise awareness of the significance summer learning plays in educational achievement.

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Be Hungry or Be Sick? Proposed Medi-Cal Co-Pay Could Force the Choice for Many

The $15 co-pay a mother is expected to cover represents half of a full week's food costs under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's

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Putin's Waiting Game

The most important yet overlooked aspect of the current situation may be the cynicism and casual indifference that Putin has displayed toward the U.S.-Russian relationship in the face of his much bigger problems at home, writes Andrew S. Weiss.

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U.S. Military's Role with Petroleum Is to Assure Security

When the U.S. Department of Defense purchases oil, it has almost no effect on world oil prices, according to new RAND reports. That means reducing fuel consumption is the only effective way for the Pentagon to cut its petroleum expenses.

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The Case for a Cyber-Security Safety Board: A Global View on Risk

Innovative approaches are needed to break the current stalemate of information sharing and to build a solid and reliable evidence base on the state of cyber-security, writes Neil Robinson.

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We Need to Know What Physicians Are Thinking

Before we allow others to implement policies attempting to optimize the use of physician time or reduce the amount of equivocal or inappropriate care, we need to understand what physicians think about these issues and what they are prepared to do about them, writes Robert H. Brook.

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Getting the Threat Right

Would-be jihadist warriors are angry, eager for adventure, out to assuage personal humiliation and demonstrate their manhood. Many appear to be motivated by personal crises—terrorism does not attract the well adjusted, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.

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Anatomy of a War Game

War games are especially important as countries prepare to counter adversaries who use asymmetric strategies or weapons, forcing military planners to deal with unfamiliar threats, writes Bruce Bennett.

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Bloomberg Right That Portion Control Works

Regulations requiring the restaurant industry to serve standardized portion sizes should be mandated and enforced by the same authorities responsible for checking hygienic conditions in food outlets, writes Deborah Cohen.

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Setting International Norms on Cyberwar Might Beat a Treaty

Restricting cyberweapon development could be harmful inasmuch as its core activity is the discovery of vulnerabilities in software--the very activity also required to bulletproof software against attacks from criminal hackers, writes Martin Libicki.

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John Gordon Receives Arthur Goodzeit Book Award for 'Fighting for MacArthur'

Fighting for MacArthur: The Navy and Marine Corps' Desperate Defense of the Philippines, a World War II history written by John Gordon, has won 2011 the Arthur Goodzeit Book Award.

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Repatriating Part of Saddam Statue Could Promote Democracy

Proactive protection and repatriation of artworks and artifacts can demonstrate our respect for another nation's heritage when the chaos of conflict obscures the value of cultural identity, writes Erik Nemeth.

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Multiple Patient Safety Events in Hospitals

A patient safety event is any event or action that could lead to a worse outcome for a patient, from bedsores to post-operative respiratory failure.

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The Inequality Debate

The inequality debate should focus more on the sources and reasons for inequality, and less on how much inequality there is, or how much it has changed, writes Charles Wolf, Jr.

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Expanding Consumer-Directed Health Plans Could Help Cut Overall Health Care Spending

If consumer-directed health plans grow to account for half of all employer-sponsored insurance in the United States, health costs could drop by $57 billion annually--about 4 percent of all health care spending among the nonelderly.